Epilogue: Stargate-verse
Teal'c sat in the council chambers on Dakara, listening to the other Jaffa debate. While this was common, the topic itself was at least new.
Gerak was striding back and forth, speaking in an aggravated tone. "I am skeptical of the Tok'ra. Many Jaffa died due to their manipulations and attacks, and they are the same species as the False Gods." A number of the watching Jaffa nodded their heads or added verbal agreement.
Bra'tac rose. "While I too urge caution, it is unfair to blame them for the deaths of Jaffa who still swore allegiance to the Goa'uld, or would you condemn those of us who have had to kill our enslaved brothers?"
"Of course not," replied Gerak with an irritated look. "The Tok'ra, however, care little for Jaffa, enslaved or not."
"I have to admit," added U'kin, former Jaffa in service to Cronus, "that I am uncomfortable with the idea of allying with the Tok'ra. They are most likely going to want hosts, and we have less need now for prim'ta." The Tauri and the Asgard had freely shared medical technology that allowed the Jaffa to survive without a larval Goa'uld, though it would take some time before all Jaffa were treated.
Teal'c decided to speak. "While the Jaffa and the Tok'ra have often been at odds, we both shared the goal of overthrowing the False Gods. It would be prudent to at least listen to their words." There was little sense in judging their proposal before it had been heard, after all.
"I agree that we should at least hear what their representative has to say," said Ka'lel, the only female on the council and representative of the Hak'tyl, the female Jaffa who had fought against Moloc's insane mandate that all girl Jaffa be killed. Their resistance and fighting prowess had earned them a seat here.
After that, the rest of the Jaffa Councilors grudgingly agreed to hear out the speaker sent to them by the Tok'ra. A messenger was sent to where the Tok'ra was waiting, and soon a man arrived in the typical uniform worn by the Tok'ra when they were not playing the role of spy or infiltrator.
"I am Antoc, of the Tok'ra. I bring greetings from High Councilor Per'sus, and the Tok'ra High Council," said the man, his voice reverberating with the deep tones of a symbiote speaking through a host.
"And what does the Tok'ra High Council want with the Free Jaffa?" asked Gerak, using a tone that made some of the more moderate Jaffa wince internally.
Rather than take offense, Antoc smiled "The Council, and our queens, are interested in avoiding conflict with the Free Jaffa. There have been regrettable incidents in the past where both your people and ours have been caught in attacks that were targeted at the Goa'uld."
"The Tok'ra have no queens," interjected Yat'Yir, Gerak's second.
"We did not," agreed the Tok'ra, "but with the help of the Asgard and their friends, we are now able to reproduce again, increasing our numbers."
"Do you seek hosts?" asked Bra'tac, voicing the question that was on the mind of every Jaffa present.
With a knowing smile, Antoc said, "We do not. I am not here for that reason...and I am aware that the Jaffa no longer have a pressing need for prim'ta."
"How is it that you do not need hosts if you're again growing in number?" prompted U'kin suspiciously.
The Tok'ra bowed his head, and when he raised it and began to speak, it was in a normal human tone. "I am Cassius, host to Antoc. We feel it may be better if I answer that question. The Asgard and their friends have given us an alternative to hosts. The Asgard reproduce by cloning, and it is possible to create a cloned body to serve as a Tok'ra host."
"Yet you are still host to Antoc," said Bra'tac questioningly.
"Those of us who are already blended are accustomed to sharing a body, and indeed, I would feel a great sense of loss were Antoc to move on to another one. Blended Tok'ra and their hosts are closer than friends in many ways," said Cassius with slight hesitation. He again bowed his head.
His voice changed back to that of the Tok'ra, and Antoc said, "Forgive Cassius, as he dislikes the display of emotion. It was one of several reasons that he chose to volunteer to become my host." Antoc gave a fond smile. "Having said that, new Tok'ra larva who have never blended find the clones to be an agreeable alternative to being trapped in an aquatic environment."
"Do the clones themselves have no sense of identity?" asked Teal'c.
Antoc shook his head. "They do not, as they have been designed to be incapable of functioning without a symbiote. They literally have no mind beyond what is needed to keep the body functioning. You may think of them as a type of biological craft, used just as we all use starships to travel in the void." It was clear that several of the council found the overall concept disturbing based on their expressions, but none voiced their concerns out loud.
"If you do not want hosts," said Ka'lel, "then what do you wish of the Jaffa? We will not fight your battles for you." The Jaffa had had quite enough of fighting on behalf of others.
Antoc shook his head. "Nor would we expect that. There may come a day when we fight together as allies, but that day is not close. What I said before is the truth. We wish to avoid needless conflict. We also wish to engage in trade. While the Tok'ra have access to advanced technology, our numbers are still relatively few."
"Would you be willing to share some of that technology?" asked Gerak, his gaze turning speculative.
"That is part of what we offer," agreed the Tok'ra. "We would also agree to help you maintain the Goa'uld technology in your possession, including the factories, foundries and shipyards. We know the Goa'uld did not share many secrets with the Jaffa." In truth, the plan was to help them maintain the technology, while offering them help with general education, medicine and agriculture. Some of the Tok'ra were still wary of the Jaffa, just as the former slaves were in turn wary of a group that was biologically identical to their former Goa'uld masters.
The negotiations proceeded from there. Gerak and his faction were suspicious, and not pleased to find that military technology would not be immediately forthcoming. He was also reluctant to allow the Tok'ra access to their production facilities for fear of sabotage. Bra'tac's allies, however, were more accommodating and willing to negotiate. During a break in the discussions, Teal'c went to have a quiet word with Antoc.
"You have repeatedly mentioned friends of the Asgard. I assume you do not refer to the Tauri," asked the former First Prime.
Antoc regarded him for a moment, and then asked, "Are you familiar with a reptilian species that refer to themselves as the Family?"
Teal'c nodded. "I am. The Tauri have encountered them several times." He had no personal experience with the lizards, though Jack had told him that his android duplicate was apparently working with them, which suggested that they were worthy of respect. He was also aware that Daniel Jackson was still working with them.
"I am not surprised. They seem to have quite a lot of unexpected knowledge, as well as an ability to travel amazingly quickly," answered Antoc. "They are responsible for both the design of the cloned bodies, as well as our new queens. The Tok'ra are in debt to them. It was partially at their suggestion that we are reaching out to the Free Jaffa."
"Indeed?" replied Teal'c with a raised eyebrow. That suggested that working with the Tok'ra might be to everyone's advantage, assuming the lizards were still being helpful.
Antoc nodded. "We have found that their advice tends to be good. We have also found that when they are disregarded, things tend to get...strange." Anise in particular had learned that lesson rather quickly. Queen or no, it was generally not a good idea to be rude to the reptiles.
By the end of the day, everyone was tired of talking, but the Free Jaffa and the Tok'ra had at least agreed to a non-aggression agreement and further talks about trade. Teal'c suspected that Bra'tac may move forward on his own, as waiting for Gerak and his allies would require an excessive amount of patience. Nevertheless, by Jaffa standards, this was rapid progress.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jack considered the stack of electronic tablets on his desk. The whole point of computers, he thought, was to eliminate the need for physical stacks of paperwork. Unfortunately, thanks to outdated security standards, any document of Class Blue or higher required that it be submitted by courier, and each courier needed a tablet. He couldn't even load them from the tablets onto his own computer, because he had to go through five security authorizations
each in order to do so, which took at least ten minutes. It just wasn't worth it. As the general in charge of off-world joint service forces, the number of Class Blue and higher materials forwarded to him was high enough that he almost never managed to clear his desk. Just as he was about to reach out and grab a tablet to read, there was a knock on his office door.
"Good morning, sir!" said Colonel Samantha Carter as she walked in.
"Carter!" said Jack happily. "You're just in time to keep me from reading reports."
Her smile grew slightly strained. "Procrastinating again on your paperwork, sir?"
"I'm prioritizing my time, Colonel."
"Of course, sir. I have the details on the new battlecruiser," said the blonde officer.
Jack's face grew, if anything, even happier. "Ooh, cool. Hit me with the details."
She handed him a tablet, which he took eagerly. He began to peruse the schematics as she described the ship. "We were able to solve the problems with the power couplings, which increased the rate of fire for the plasma cannons by a factor of three. It's actually slightly faster than the Asgard equivalent by about fifteen percent, though the power output is only about 97% of theirs because our superconductors still aren't quite as efficient. The firepower is still impressive. Even Aegir was impressed."
"Excellent...we may actually need the firepower if the Ori ever show up," commented Jack. "Of course, we may get to test it out on the Aschen, first..."
Carter's eyes widened. "I thought we had ships watching them? What happened?"
"They've sent out a number of unmanned hyperspace scouts. Here, look at this..." Jack shuffled through the tablets on his desk until he found the one he wanted. He used his thumbprint to open the file. "What does that look like to you?"
Sam reviewed the long-range scans taken of the vessel. "They're sending their stargates out on scouts? No...wait...they built their own stargates?"
"They figured it out somehow. It's going to take months, maybe even years, for those ships to get somewhere, but they can send gateships through the gate as soon as they get close to another system. It's only a matter of time before they run into somebody that will clue them in to faster hyperdrives," said Jack with a frown.
"I'm actually surprised they haven't just figured out how to build a faster drive system."
Jack shook his head. "McKay says he thinks they've fundamentally misunderstood something about the technology. You can ask him."
Sam's made a face like she had tasted something bad. "Yeah, no, I'm OK. I don't need to know that badly." She paused for a moment. "In any event, we should be good to begin production of the new ships next week. Each one should take about nine weeks to assemble, thanks to the Asgard construction beams."
"That's good. We're still short of ships, and with the Asgard focusing on Ida and Pegasus, we're bearing the burden of patrols in this galaxy. The Lucians are still being a pain in the ass, and not all of the Jaffa are content to join the Free Jaffa nation. Hell, rumor has it that there are still a few minor Goa'uld floating around out there with small fleets." There was no shortage of human worlds out there that were willing to sign trade agreements, and even defense cooperation agreements, but very few powers actually had a significant enough space navy to even secure their own space. In practice, any world that sent out large numbers of ships in the past tended to run afoul of the Goa'uld and get smashed.
"Well, this will definitely help, assuming we can find the crews," said the Colonel. "We're almost done with the design for the new carrier, too."
Jack looked up again at that. "The
Lexington class? Still think they should have called it
Enterprise..."
Samantha Carter refrained from rolling her eyes through an act of will. "The crew requirements are actually lower than with the battlecruisers thanks to the drones." While the ships would have an allotment of human pilots, most of the craft would be piloted remotely through the use of neural interfaces, similar to the approach used by the Eurondans. Most races apart from the Goa'uld found the loss rates for small craft prohibitive in space combat. The
Lexington class would be Earth's attempt to retain the benefits of carriers without having to constantly replace pilot losses.
"I know, I skimmed over the summary I got three days ago," replied General O'Neill, gesturing at the tablets. At Carter's look, he added, "I do scan them all when I get them in case there's anything truly important."
"Well, sir, I should get back to work," said Carter.
Jack nodded. "Oh, I heard from Daniel."
Carter paused and looked back. "Really? What did he say?"
"He's decided to take an extended leave of absence," replied Jack.
Sam's face fell. "He's not coming back? Is he staying with the Family?"
"He's traveling, actually...with Sarah."
Her face changed from saddened to a mixture of surprised and mildly pleased. "Really? Sarah Gardner? Huh...well, good for him." Janet would be happy to hear that. They had both been worried about the archaeologist's mental well-being after his wife's death.
"Colonel Mitchell is not going to be happy, though. He was hoping to get the band back together, so to speak," said Jack with a smirk.
Samantha did roll her eyes at that. "I know. I already told him I wasn't willing to leave running the Starship Design Group. He's just going to have to recruit his own team." Teal'c was on Dakara as well, so the original SG-1 team that started at the SGC was well and truly disbanded. "Well, I had best get back."
Jack looked up at her hopefully. "I don't suppose you have any issues that would require me to come with you and help troubleshoot?"
Glancing at the pile of tablets, she just said, "Sorry, sir," and left.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Helia sat in the bar, drowning her sorrows. At least, she was making a game attempt, but her Lantean physiology made it difficult if not impossible to actually get drunk. The fact that they had something that could even effect her was kind of impressive, in a way. She supposed she should be thankful they let her stay on Atlantis after what she tried to do. In retrospect, it was idiotic, but after they had been rescued from the
Tria, she had just wanted to take control of the situation. How was she supposed to know they had Asgard and actual Anquietas on staff, apart from the humans? Her attempt to override command authority on the city ship had ended before it even began.
"You look like you've had a rough day," said a deep voice.
She looked over to see a very large, dark-skinned man with long hair. She rolled her eyes. "I'm not looking for somebody to warm my bed."
He laughed. "My wife would kill me if that's what I was offering. I'm just making an observation."
"Well you can keep your observations to yourself," she muttered, taking another gulp of her drink, and wincing at the taste. "Ugh, what is this?"
"What color is it?" asked the stranger.
She looked down at the glass and took note of the color. "Green, I think."
"Ah, it's probably the absinthe. I tried that once. It's got a kick like Alaysian moonshine," he replied. "It's an Earth drink."
"Great, more Earth stuff." She set her head down and rested it in the cradle of her hands. Getting rescued by people from Earth had topped the day her ship's hyperdrive had failed between galaxies as the worst thing to ever happen to her.
After about thirty seconds, the man said, "I'm Ronon Dex of Sateda."
She turned her head to look at him, then grudgingly replied, "Helia of Atlantis."
"Uh, you live here?"
"I used to, a
long time ago, back before the Earthers came here," she replied.
He paused to glance around at the hole-in-the-wall bar they were in. It sat on the end of one of the city's arms, near a pier that was used for the work boats being used to do more detailed mapping of the world's massive ocean. As such, it was as far from the heart of the city as you could get without leaving. "I thought the whole city was abandoned before the Earthers came? That's what they told us the first time we came through the gate, at least."
"I lived here before it was abandoned." At his skeptical look, she explained, "My ship was stuck without hyperdrive between galaxies, so we spent years travelling at close to light speed." When he still obviously wasn't getting it, she continued. "Going that close to light speed slows down time for the ship by a lot."
"Huh," he said, finally getting it. "Is it different? The city, I mean."
She glared at him. "You mean besides my people not being in control of the city anymore?"
"What would be different if they were?" he asked, honestly curious.
With a grimace, she replied, "We would control our own birthright. We would be able to protect our remaining people...maybe restart our civilization." Not that there were necessarily enough people on her ship to do that, but they could have found a solution somehow.
He turned his gaze back to his own drink, but asked, "What about everybody else in the galaxy?"
She looked at him, confused. "What about them?"
He was quiet for almost a minute. She took another sip from her drink, deciding it was better sipped. Finally, he said, "My world, Sateda, is not as advanced as this place, but we were advanced enough for the Wraith to take notice. They don't like human worlds that get powerful enough to challenge them. Those that do get bombed from orbit and harvested. The thing is, when the hive ship showed up to do that to us, a couple of Asgard warships appeared from nowhere and tore it to pieces. They were there because the Earthers came to Atlantis, and they saved my world and my family. Would your people have done that?"
She stared at her drink for a time. "We don't have the people or the resources to protect other worlds." As far as she knew, the city only had the gateships. Even if they had managed to find another Lantean vessel, they likely wouldn't have the crew to man it and keep the city functioning.
"You also didn't have the people or resources to beat the Wraith back...or even to rescue your ship stuck out between galaxies. It seems like things are better for you then they could have been," he commented. There was no malice in his voice, but she could sense the reproach anyway.
She frowned, not really wanting to consider his words, but they had some truth to them. The war with the Wraith hadn't been going well when the
Tria departed, and it apparently had gotten worse rather than better...bad enough that her people fled, leaving the city hidden under the sea. She also remembered the bitterness that came from thinking that she was going to live out the rest of her life on a ship stuck between galaxies, with just her crew for company. She looked at him and changed the subject. "Why are you here, on Atlantis?"
"I'm on the security detail for the Satedan ambassador. She's here to negotiate a trade agreement...resources for technology."
She scoffed. "You mean tribute in return for protection from the Wraith?"
"No, actually. We expected it to be like that, but the Asgard are kind of funny. They seem to think hunting down the Wraith is great sport, and are happy to do it. They even try to rescue any captured humans first. We had a couple of people who had been taken while travelling to other worlds come back to us," explained Dex. "The Asgard representative here asked us to forward any information we had on the Wraith, and said they would take care of it. For myself, I'm just happy they seem to like humans."
"What about the people from Earth? What do they get out of this?" she asked, curious to learn more. It's not like anybody had shared much information with her after her failed attempt to usurp control of the city.
"The guy in charge, Director Woolsey, said Atlantis was a diplomatic and research outpost. He said Earth has got more than enough work to do managing their own galaxy without worrying about this one. He didn't go into details, but it was pretty clear that they consider Atlantis a frontier posting. I can tell you that Sateda is perfectly fine with that, and so are some of the other groups like the Genii." Satedan high command had been shocked at how much the Genii had been hiding their advancement, however. Sateda was setting up bases and colonies on other worlds now that the Wraith weren't a threat, and that was in part a response to the Genii, who had always come across as self-important dickheads even when they were playing the role of simple farmers.
Helia considerd that. In truth, there wasn't much reason for the people of Earth to invest their time in the Pegasus galaxy. She was guessing the potentia for the city were pretty much drained after all these centuries, so the intergalactic hyperdrive wouldn't work without replacement. That meant working in place if they wanted to mine the city for her people's technology. It wouldn't be too difficult with the help of the Asgard and the Anquietas. Speaking of which... "Do you know anything about the Anquietas...the Ancients...working with the Earthers?"
"You mean the Ancestors? I thought you were an Ancestor?"
She shook her head. "I'm Lantean. The Anquietas were our ancestors, and originally lived in Avalon, the same galaxy as Earth."
This time it was Ronon's turn to shake his head. "I don't know much about them. Woolsey mentioned that they had been rescued, so maybe they were in the same situation as you were? You'd have to ask one of them for more details."
That was more likely than a group of ascended deciding to descend just to work for a bunch of humans as technical advisers, thought Helia. She wondered what had made them want to work with Earth, even if they had been rescued by them. Maybe she could track one of them down when they were off-duty and ask some questions, like Dex had suggested?
The man in question finished his drink. "Well, I should get back to my quarters. I have duty tomorrow early. If you decide you don't want to work with the people here, you can always come to Sateda. I know the government would be thrilled to have you working with them as a technical adviser. Our world has got a lot of catching up to do."
"Thanks. I'll consider that," she replied. She didn't have any real interest in working on a low-tech world, but that did beg the question of what she was going to do with herself. She had already burned her bridges with those running Atlantis. Maybe she could try and get to Avalon...see if anything was happening with the Nox or the Furlings. If nothing else, the Nox would probably give her a place to stay while she figured things out, and Gaia was always pretty quiet...and she wouldn't have to worry about running into people from Earth.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Roald and Erika were sitting and listening to Loremaster Hallr in the man's house. Their parents were off enrolling them in the new school, and Hallr had volunteered to watch them. Unlike some of the older skalds, Hallr was all in favor of having the children attend formal schooling, being more concerned for their well-being and that of his people than he was worried about his livelihood and the threat posed by formal education.
"For many years, Thor's Hammer protected us from the Ettins, who still continued to test Thor's power every year. Many of them were killed. Then one day, warriors from Midgard came to visit. They had among them one who had worked for the Ettins, but now fought against them. That one was caught by Thor's Hammer, and the Midgardians had to destroy it to to rescue their friend. When they left, they gave us a box we could use to summon them," recited the skald.
"Why did they destroy Thor's Hammer if it was protecting us?" asked Erika.
He smiled down at her, pleased that she was asking questions. "They thought that Thor would still be able to protect us with his might. They also told us to call on them if we needed them, and that is what happened. One of the Ettins, a monster named Heru'ur, attacked us, and killed many, thinking that Thor had abandoned us. We called for aid from Midgard, and they sent their warriors back to help. Some of them fought the Ettins, while others located the Hall of Thor's Might, and called Thor."
Roald looked perplexed. "Why didn't Thor already know we needed him?"
Hallr got a serious look on his face. "The Asgard were fighting monsters greater than the Ettins. The Býstál came in massive hordes, and could eat the weapons and armor of the gods. This fight distracted them, so Thor did not see our need until the Midgardians called him. He came in his chariot and defeated Heru'ur and his armies. After that, the Asgard revealed their true forms to us, and began to teach us their wisdom."
"Are the Býstál still out there?" asked Erika with wide eyes.
"No," he replied with a shake of his head for emphasis. "The Asgard met a group of friendly dragons, who helped them fight against them, and the Býstál were all destroyed."
"How does Thor's chariot fly?" asked Roald.
Hallr thought how best to answer their questions. "Thor's chariot is like a skeid, but instead of sailing the seas, it sails the heavens."
"But how? There isn't any water up there to float on, is there?" prompted the child.
"You will probably learn more than I know when you're in school, but think of it this way. If I shoot an arrow into the air, then it will fall back down again, yes?" The children nodded their heads, and he continued. "Cimmeria holds things to it, and things that try to leave get pulled back. If I had a powerful enough bow, though, then the arrow would never come down again, and when it got far enough away, it would stay there. Thor's people know how to use this to travel to different worlds like Cimmeria and Midgard."
Roald got a look of concentration on his face as he tried to imagine a bow big enough to launch a longship into the heavens. He felt there had to be more to it than Hallr was saying, but maybe that was why their parents wanted them to go to school?
"Is Thor really a god?" asked Erika.
Hallr didn't answer immediately. He wasn't sure how devout the children's parents were, and saying the wrong thing might end up coming to trouble. "Thor can smite his enemies with lightning, make things appear and disappear, travel across the breadth of the heavens, speak to anybody in any language, and knows the secrets of the universe. What would you call him, if not a god?"
The children seemed to accept this, much to his relief. He was looking forward to letting the teachers at school deal with the hard questions. Maybe he should look into going to Midgard to study how they studied lore? One of the Midgardians he had met had claimed to be a "historian," one who studied the ancestors of the Cimmerians who had lived on Midgard centuries ago. It might be interesting to see where they came from, before the Asgard saved them from the Ettins.
Roald got a strange look on his face, then asked, "Do the gods make babies like people do?"
Hallr swallowed, suddenly wishing he was already on his way to Midgard.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Years later...
"Daniel, are you sure we want to do this?" asked Sarah. The two of them were in the pilot and co-pilot chairs on the bridge of the skimmer given to them to use by the Family.
"I'm not absolutely sure, but you know I have a soft spot for orphans for obvious reasons," he replied. "I'm not comfortable leaving him where he is. You know we can help raise him better than those people."
Sarah frowned, but she admitted that once they figured out that the
Ship of Fools had stumbled across the founding of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it was only a matter of time before Daniel decided to do something to alter the timeline. It wasn't as if she didn't agree with him. Most of her doubts really centered on whether or not she was willing to take responsibility for an infant. The only reassuring aspect of it was that she was sure the Family and the Nox would help, and they had a whole army of slayers who would serve as babysitters.
The ship came out into orbit above Earth, and Daniel began scanning, looking to establish a date. "Well, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower both exist, so we're at least some time past the 1890's."
Sarah looked for other signs. "There are signs of trench warfare across Europe, but no current fighting, except in Russia."
Daniel looked over. "So, after World War One, but the Russian Revolution is still in progress. That narrows it down quite a bit."
"What if we're too late?" she asked.
"We're nowhere close to being late if the Reds and Whites are still fighting over the Motherland."
"No, I know that, but we're not just going to sit around for years. We're going to have to jump forward," she said, slightly exasperated with him.
"If we nail down the time period, we can just make small jumps. The drive is pretty accurate," he said, wondering what had her so worried. "Is everything all right?"
She paused and seriously considered the question. After some thought, she replied, "I think I'm nervous about the idea of kidnapping a baby, even if there isn't any chance we'll get caught."
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "I prefer to think of it as giving an orphan a loving home. We're just not in a position to properly fill out the paperwork and go through a legal adoption."
"We could probably just bribe them to give us the child," she suggested.
"I don't think I could give money in good conscience to anybody who would actually sell an infant, regardless of the circumstances," replied Daniel.
She frowned, then nodded. "All right, you're right. I'm sorry to be so difficult about this."
He smiled at her. "You know me. I'm never going to say no to a discussion of the morality and ethics of any particular situation. It used to drive Jack crazy."
She laughed at that image. "I can imagine." She had met Jack O'Neill, and while he was a good man, he was also a soldier, with all that that entailed. He had a much higher respect for both obedience to authority and practicality then Daniel did. She still wondered how they had managed to work together so effectively, and even become close friends.
They spent some more time looking for clues from orbit, and then Daniel finally said, "I think the easiest way to do things is just to go down there and check the date."
"A bit risky, isn't it?" she asked.
"Less so if I go down to New York rather than London. Really, I just need to see a newspaper. How do I look?" he said, gesturing to his outfit.
Sarah considered. While his denim jeans and button-down shirt weren't current fashion, people would probably assume he was a typical laborer on a cursory inspection. His penny loafers would also probably pass, even if they were about a decade too early. "I think you're fine. Don't risk yourself, though. I would rather change the timeline than lose you."
He moved toward her and gave her a kiss. "Don't worry, I'll be careful."
Daniel used the teleporter to put himself in an alley that was clear of human life signs (though there were plenty of rats). He quickly made his way out, and got lucky. There was a discarded newspaper lying in the gutter. The masthead said,
Illustrated Daily News, with a headline of, "GERMANS BLOCK SIGNING OF TREATY," and a picture of the Prince of Wales on horseback on the front page. The date was Thursday, June 26, 1919. It had almost certainly been published within the last day or two.
He was soon back on their ship, and it was a simple matter to program the wormhole drive with the right date offset, thanks to Saurial's help with the design of the drive control program. The drive system on the dimension skimmers was fairly idiot-proof. The two of them were soon at the right time, and were just waiting for it to be the middle of the night in London. Kidnappings were easier in the dark, after all.
Around one in the morning local time, a dark figure made his way through the shadows of London, avoiding street lights, pedestrians and automobiles. An unlocked window gave him easy access to the child's bedroom, causing him to wonder at how careless his guardians were. He paused for a moment when the young boy's eyes opened, but the infant didn't cry out or fuss. He just stared at Daniel, seemingly content...or perhaps surprised at this unexpected human contact. The archaeologist couldn't help but smile as he stole the infant out of the crib, back out the window, and ultimately off-world.
The woman who discovered the empty crib the next morning panicked a bit, worried that she might be blamed for the child's disappearance. The police were called, but the investigation was fairly cursory, and the case of the missing infant Tom Riddle was soon forgotten as a massive influenza pandemic swept through the city and the rest of the world.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ganos made sure to save the edits she was making to her book before getting up to answer the frantic chiming of her doorbell. The person on the other side surprised her. "Eana?"
"Ganos, you're here! I don't know what I would do if you weren't." The short red-haired Lantean woman rushed in and gave her friend a desperate hug.
"Eana, when did you descend? You argued with me for hours when I told you my plans." Her friend had actually tried to convince her to stay ascended long past the point when most of the others had given up on her, considering her a lost cause.
"Just now. Ganos, it's the Ori. They deployed a weapon to Avalon like the one Moros was building." Moros, known as Merlin to the people of Earth, had been building a weapon designed to kill ascended beings...largely as a doomsday weapon to use against the Ori if they should attack.
Ganos was shocked. "What about the others? How many managed to descend or flee before...?"
Eana started to tremble. "I...I don't know how many made it. Not everybody. Ogil happened to notice the weapon come through the astria porta through pure luck. He sent out a warning, but I doubt it was in time for all of the ascended. Ganos, what are we going to do? The Ori will be sending priors and ships here, now that they've neutralized the ascended."
Ganos snorted despite the seriousness of the situation. "Don't worry about the Ori forces. The Confederation Navy is more than capable of handling any ships or troops, even if they don't ask the Asgard for help. The Ori can't be allowed to get away with this unprovoked attack, however."
"What are you going to do?" asked the still trembling woman.
Ganos pulled out a communicator. "I'm going to phone a friend." There was a pause as the call connected. "Hello, Saurial. I'm fine, thank you, but the Ori have attacked the ascended in Avalon." There was another pause. "Yes, a friend of mine just informed me. She descended before the weapon went off. Yes, it was similar to what Moros was building." Ganos listened for the better part of a minute, then said, "Thank you. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." The call ended.
"Who was that?" asked Eana.
Ganos led her friend over to a chair. The newly descended sometimes failed to appreciate how much of a relief simply sitting down could be as the pull of gravity on biology was alleviated. "Do you remember when Brennus had his incident?" A human psychologist would probably have referred to it as a psychotic break, but the ascended preferred to be a bit more circumspect.
Eana stared at her. "Yes...he was never quite the same again." What she didn't say was that most of the changes had been an improvement, even if his hydrophobia was extremely bizarre in a being without a physical body.
"The being I just called was the cause of it. My hope is that she will come up with something appropriate to do with our distant cousins," said Ganos with a feral grin that looked slightly alien on the former school teacher's face.
The recently descended Eana was suddenly unsure if she should feel sorry for the Ori, which was disconcerting given that she was sure she hated them quite thoroughly. She also wondered what had happened to Ganos Lal since she had regained her body to evince such a gleeful vindictiveness from the woman.
* * * * *
Eachann had been ascended for so long that he had almost forgotten that he had ever had a physical body. Like the other Ori, he had been reveling in their successful attack against the heretics who had fled to another galaxy. Some among them had argued that it would have been more satisfying to take over the mortals of their cousins' galaxy first, leaving them trapped by their own rules of non-interference until it was too late. Sanity had prevailed, however. They could easily subdue the mortals after the ascended were gone. Why risk having to fight beings that were in many ways the equal of the Ori, even if they handicapped themselves by refusing mortal worship? The weapon they used had worked as planned, leaving the survivors either descended or scattered far away. Now they simply had to send priors to create a supergate, and they would soon have a whole galaxy of new worshipers.
That, at least, had been the plan.
Now, Eachann was lying face down in mud, tasting the dirt in his mouth, while his stunned mind adjusted to the feelings of pain that were coming from his skinned knees and hands. He had been dropped from a height onto the rough, wet ground. He spent a good ten minutes just lying in the filth, trying to change to his ascended form or communicate with any of the other Ori, the priors, or even simple human worshipers. After repeated failures, he pushed himself upright, sitting back on his bruised legs and holding himself up with his arms. For a moment, he was relieved that his body knew how to move his limbs without him having to figure out how to do it through force of will.
Looking around, he could see walls that looked to be of carved stone. There was no light source, though there appeared to be enough light coming from
somewhere so that he could actually see, albeit dimly. He appeared to be in a tunnel. He listened, but there was no sound. The air itself was still. After a few moments, he called out. "Hello?" He could hear his voice echo down the corridor a ways, but there was no response.
After a few more half-hearted attempts to use his ascended powers, he stood up and began walking. Neither direction seemed better than the other, so he picked one at random. He paused at regular intervals to listen for any noise, but was only met with maddening silence. Attempts to call out were also fruitless. With little else to do, Eachann walked in the dark. It was impossible to tell the passage of time. While he could feel the beating of his heart, he had no idea anymore how that biological rhythm mapped to any meaningful measure of time's passage. It wasn't like he could count the beats perpetually as he walked, regardless. For this reason, he had no idea how long it had been since he started walking when he stumbled across the body.
She was still alive, and he didn't recognize her. He knew he hadn't seen her recently, but there were trillions of humans and millions of ascended that he wouldn't recognize by sight of their mortal form. He did recognize the look of absolute horror that was frozen on her face. She lay on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, her eyes blank. She did not respond to his voice, or his touch...or even when he kicked her in the side in frustration. She just stared, her eyes wide, with a thin trail of drool falling out the side of her mouth. He briefly had the disquieting thought that he had no idea if he had to eat food in this body. He wasn't hungry...yet. His face took on a look of slight nausea as he considered that he had yet to see anything edible in these caverns apart from the comatose woman. Unwilling to stay by this woman, who was apparently brain dead, paralyzed, or suffering from some other malady, he continued walking. Disquieting as it had been, Eachann was thankful that he had at least found something other than the endless corridor.
His next discovery was an intersection, where two seemingly identical corridors appeared to meet. He paused to listen...and was surprised that he could very faintly hear the sound of a voice coming from one corridor. The voice sounded like it was screaming in fear. He began to run toward the sound. Part of his mind said that he could be running into danger, but the chance to actually meet another person capable of speech was too tempting, and he threw caution to the wind. It was to no avail, as by the time he reached the screamer, the young man lying on the floor was in the same state as the woman he had found previously. It occurred to him that this affliction may be the result of some kind of attack, assuming he hadn't hallucinated the screaming.
The endless march through the dark continued. The next time he paused to listen, he thought he could hear a slight sound, but it stopped before he could identify it. He tried calling out again, but there was no answer. Frustrated, he continued forward. When he paused again, he made sure to listen carefully the moment he stopped. There was a brief sound that sounded like the rustling of fabric? For the next while, each time he stopped, he could hear that same sound, and it was getting louder by incremental amounts each time.
Finally, paranoia and primal instinct overtook reason, and he started to run. He ran through the dark blindly. He no longer stopped to listen. He didn't stop at either of the two new intersections he passed. He didn't stop until he could no longer breath. Finally, exhausted, he collapsed to his knees and began sucking air in through his mouth in desperate gasps. He couldn't run any longer, even though his panic was still pushing him to do so.
He froze as he heard the sound of rustling fabric nearby. Frantically, he looked back the way he had run, and he could see a dark, cloaked figure floating toward him. He fell back to his side and turned around, and began pushing himself back from the figure with his hands and feet, scuttling like a frightened crab. He couldn't stop himself from crying out as the creature rapidly flew toward him, and he got his first look at the skeletal visage inside the cowl, its mouth gaping, its eye sockets blindly staring. He was still screaming when the
thing reached out a bony hand and grabbed his neck, pulling him up like an obscene mockery of a kiss.
* * * * *
Ganos was introducing Eana to the joy of ice cream, which was, in her opinion, one of the best creations of human civilization, when her phone rang. She answered, listened briefly, then thanked the caller and disconnected.
"Well?" asked Eana, eyeing her friend nervously.
Ganos smiled. "Saurial said the Ori are gone. We won't have to worry about them anymore."
"How?" asked the stunned woman.
The smile on Ganos' face faltered. "I don't know. She just said that they took the opportunity to take care of two problems at once. I don't think I
want to know any more."
The two women continued to eat their ice cream in silence.
* * * * *
Albus ran a hand through the hairs of his red beard. He had just received news that the Dementors had vanished from Azkaban prison, and he was worried that this was somehow tied to a plot by Grindelwald. There had been rumors that Gellert was creating his own fortress prison in Austria...a place that prisoners never left. Had he recruited the Dementors to serve as guards?
Despite the best efforts of Albus Dumbledore and the International Confederation of Wizards in the years that followed, the Dementors of Azkaban were never seen again. There was no sign of them in Nurmengard Castle, though that was small solace to Grindelwald during his internment there.